Snake Eyes (The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart
Date:	26/09/05 (524 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An intriguing idea

Disadvantages: Maybe a bit too tempting an idea?

I first became aware of Luke Rhinehart’s “The Dice Man” whilst studying psychology at university, although I can’t remember if it was merely mentioned in passing or if it actually appeared on one of my reading lists. The idea is naturally fairly intriguing anyway, but particularly for someone who already has an interest in psychology and even more so if that interest extends more towards the abnormal side of psychology, as mine did and still does. For all the complexities and unknown’s involving the human psyche, it’s at its most interesting when something goes wrong.

Luke Rhinehart seemingly has it all. He has a moderately successful psychiatric practice, an attractive wife and a couple of seemingly lovely children. Unfortunately, he also seems to be experiencing something of a mid-life crisis which has left him bored with his life. Until, in an effort to remove his boredom, he rolls a die to see if he should rape the wife of his partner in the psychiatric practice. On a one in six chance, the die tells him that he should and the first act of Dr Luke Rhinehart’s “dicelife” has begun.

Entranced by the idea, Rhinehart starts letting the die, or dice, make more and more decisions in his life. Soon both his personal and professional lives are taken over by the dice and he sets about becoming a totally random personality. However, Rhinehart’s randomly changing personality alienates family, friends and colleagues with many of the latter believing he is becoming psychotic, rather than random. Equally, however, others are entranced by the theory and he wins a number of converts to his schemes.

It’s pretty difficult to assign a style of writing to this tale, as it does vary quite wildly. The author begins by warning that the “autobiography”, much like the “life” it describes is being dictated by the roll of a die. This means that you can get long chapters, followed by some that are no more than three or four words long. There are long sections on his life just before he hands over control of it to the dice, but unlike in a standards autobiography, nothing from before then. The outlook is totally in the present and generally pretty hedonistic, with sex frequently becoming an option.

That said, whilst there are frequently new avenues to follow, dependent on the options given to the die and on what the die selects, it does become a little repetitive before too long. The cover blurb tells you that “sex always seems to be an option” and it is, but reading about it too often does get a little boring, despite the supposed randomness of the kind of sex involved. The reason for this is that no matter what options are presented to the die to choose between, these options have to be selected by the person in the first instance, so they are restricted by the interests and desires of the person choosing the options. Whilst reading about sexual experimentation might be fun the first time, it does get a bit boring after too much of it.

Sadly, “The Dice Man” is only a faux-autobiography, actually a work of fiction written in the style of an autobiography. That said, however, it has as its basis a thoroughly intriguing idea, particularly for those with an interest in psychology. As far as I can remember from my studies, the psychological theories he quotes are valid, merely twisted slightly to suit his own aims.

Psychologically, this is certainly an interesting idea and it is quite easy to be tempted to follow Rhinehart’s philosophy into making decisions on a random basis, particularly if you are struggling with some aspects of life, as he was. This isn’t a book to be read when you’re in the midst of a crisis of any kind, as that would be when the ideas contained within “The Dice Man” may have a stronger appeal.

If it’s not a book for the indecisive, neither is it one for the prudish, because of all the sexual activities described within and some of the language used to describe them. But for those who aren’t likely to be put off by that, it’s actually quite a good read. Despite all the jumping around in terms of style and the frequent dropping in of extracts from “The Book of the Die”, which is essentially the Bible for “dicelife”, it is pretty readable. Rhinehart’s style, for the most part, is quite causal and almost conversational at times, even when he’s talking about psychiatric and psychological things. Whilst the book might hold greater interest to those with an interest in those fields, it’s not so heavily based in them that those with no prior knowledge would struggle to understand.

That said, you do need to be in the right frame of mind to read this, as it can be a little left of centre. Whilst many books and autobiographies may have frequent stories of a sexual nature, very few of them are combined with stories from therapy or mixed in with the other activities that make up Rhinehart’s existence, such as it is.

It’s a very old book, but it hasn’t aged greatly. Dice are still easy to come by and the actions and options Rhinehart chooses are essentially timeless. It’s not difficult to forget that this book is now better than thirty years old, although you do have to wonder if this could have come out of any other decade than the somewhat permissive 1960s.

The good news about the age of the book is that it can be found fairly cheaply, if it’s something you’re likely to be interested in. A new copy can be found on Amazon from £5.59 and Play,com for £5.99. If your interest doesn’t stretch quite that far, second hand copies have been seen on Green Metropolis for £3.75, the Amazon Marketplace from £1.50 and eBay from a penny.

It’s a book that should only be read by the strong of heart and the strong of mind, for it is the kind of book that intrigues and tempts. If you are both and cannot decide whether to read it, however, maybe you could make that choice on the toss of a coin, or the roll of a die.

Summary: A story of a man who lives life at the whim of a die